1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus such as a digital audio tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as "DAT") or the like and more particularly to an apparatus arranged to be capable of setting the circuit constants of necessary circuits according to a recording medium being used.
2. Description of the Related Art
The DAT uses a magnetic tape contained in a cassette which is constructed according to a given format and is provided with a detection hole for detection of the characteristics of the magnetic tape. The conventional DAT is arranged to detect the characteristics of the magnetic tape by detecting the presence or absence of the detection hole in the cassette and to set the circuit constants of necessary circuits according to the characteristics detected.
However, subtle differences in characteristics among various magnetic tapes are ignored by the simple method of detecting the presence or absence of the detection hole. Under such a condition, the characteristics of the tape cannot be advantageously utilized, even if the tape has excellent characteristics, because the DAT is designed on the basis of the worst possible values of the tape characteristics. If the DAT were designed for the excellent tape characteristics, some disadvantage would occur for tapes of poor characteristics.